Is it virtue signaling? Yes it is, but sometimes it’s what’s
called for.
The day Charlie Kirk was shot was one of those days. Just like
the day President Trump was shot, the day president Reagan was shot and down
through the too long list of violence that helps define America.
The United States of America is a violent country.
As Charlie Kirk himself said defending the right of Americans to
own guns, "It's worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths
every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment”.
That may be true for “some” gun deaths. But the 2024 numbers in
the U.S. related to the gun violence, like that which killed Kirk, are
staggering.
• More
than 16000 gun deaths, excluding suicides.
• More
than 550 mass shootings, defined as an event where more than four people were
shot.
• Over
700 people killed in those mass shooting events.
• Over
2000 people wounded in those mass shooting events.
Perhaps we’ve passed the “some” rubicon, but that’s an argument
for another day. I only present the above list as evidence of some of the
violence prevalent in America.
Today, while our country is still coming to grips with yet
another episode of political violence, we need to consider our response. Our
political leaders need to consider their response. Because it is in how all of
us respond when faced with such tragedy that define us, our goals and our
future as a country.
And perhaps can help us set a path forward.
One of the “jobs” if you will, of political leadership is to help
bind us together after such tragedy, and remind us of our shared purpose in
unity. In 1995 after the Oklahoma City bombing, a political act of violence to
be sure, President Clinton had this to say to a wounded and hurting community…
"To all my fellow Americans beyond this hall, I say, one thing we
owe those who have sacrificed is the duty to purge ourselves of the dark forces
which gave rise to this evil. They are forces that threaten our common peace,
our freedom, our way of life.
Let us teach our children that the God of comfort is also the God
of righteousness. Those who trouble their own house will inherit the wind.
Justice will prevail.
Let us let our own children know that we will stand against the
forces of fear. When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against
it. When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it. In the
face of death, let us honor life. As St. Paul admonished us, let us not be
overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."
President Clinton understood his job as America’s mourner in
chief as well as President Reagan understood his job as America’s historian
when in France, he gave his famous “The boys of Pointe du Hoc” speech at the 40th anniversary of the allied landings
at Normandy. Sometimes in America the only person whose words matter, the only
person who can call us together, is our president.
In spite of all the chaos and
violence that is too often swirling all around us, we expect, in fact we need
our presidents and political leaders to rise above it. That’s exactly what
President Lincoln was doing in his 1861 inauguration speech, given after he
survived a first assassination attempt. That day, on the eve of the Civil War,
he called us to appeal to “the better angels of our nature”.
A New York Times story from 2024
notes that…
“In February 2021, Nathan P. Kalmoe and Lilliana Mason, both
political scientists, asked a sample of Americans whether it was justified for
members of their party to kill opposing political leaders to advance their
political goals. Twelve percent of Republicans and 11 percent of Democrats
replied that it was. “Generalizing to the population of
American partisans,” they write, “means roughly 20 million who
endorse assassinating U.S. leaders.”
What Kalmoe and Mason were in effect saying is that 20 million
people in the U.S. believe political violence is acceptable. This viewing
political violence as a legitimate expression of anger at “the system” or
people from across the political aisle is what led to events like the Oklahoma
City bombing. It is the same attitude and acceptance that led to the attempt on
President Trump’s life, the mass political shooting at Tops Friendly Market in
Buffalo and the assassination
of Charlie Kirk.
Today I wonder where Lincoln’s “better angels” are.
Where are our political leaders like President Reagan and Speaker
Tip O’Neill who, as bitter political rivals, clasped hands the day Reagan was
shot and prayed together, Democrat and Republican for the president’s life?
I wonder why today, the idea of simply saying “All political
violence is wrong and never justified” seems so out of reach of not just our
political leaders, but everyday Americans as well. What has led over 20 million
Americans, if the research from Kalmoe and Mason is accurate, to conclude
political violence is acceptable?
Charlie Kirk was a political leader, beloved by many. His death
is leaving behind a grieving widow and two fatherless children. But Minnesota Democrat Melissa Hortman along with
her husband were also gunned down by an assassin’s bullets, leaving behind two
now orphaned children.
Why is it that our elected political leadership cannot, check
that, will not, recognize that America has a political violence problem that
crosses party lines, as expressed in these two shootings and their aftermath?
Where are the voices from both political parties, indeed from our
current president, condemning not just this particular violent act, but all
political violence in America, no matter the party? Where are the political
leaders of our country willing to step into the shoes of men like Lincoln,
Reagan and Clinton, call us together and signal the great virtues of America?
Why are some of our leading political leaders so silent on the
American scourge of political violence? What is keeping them and even our
president from simply saying to the 20 million Americans who believe otherwise…
“All political violence is wrong and has no place in America society!”?
Is it fear of reprisal? Political weakness? Or is it because they
agree with them?
